Monthly Archives: April 2010

“So why would you call him Pugnacious Loyola?”
“Well, he’s a pug and you said he would support you and stand up for you and that he was very loyal – so I thought Pugnacious Loyola. It sounds a bit like Ignatius Loyola. It’s a pun – a play on words.” I said
“It is like when we called our fish Adolf Fishler because it had a black moustache mark above its mouth.”
“Who is Ignatius Loyola then?” she asked
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491– July 31, 1556) was a Spanish knight from a noble family, who became a hermit priest and theologian and founded the Society of Jesus also called the Jesuits who are known in the fields of education (schools, colleges, universities, seminaries, theological faculties), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits in addition to missionary work and social justice.
I did not go to Catholic school but I was taught the Prayer of St Ignatius Loyola
Teach us, Good Lord,
To Serve Thee as Thou deservest;
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.
It is very timely for me to be reminded of that prayer now as I have been feeling peeved lately that I was not receiving financial reward or recognition for my work and was being subjected to stress on a number of fronts which was affecting my health. My attitude needs a good polishing!
“So is the name supposed to be funny then?” asked Sprite
“She who laughs last has the joke explained to her.” I said

After a lengthy phone discussion with a Psychology student friend about the mistaken tendency to assume that the knowledge you have is generally known by most people, I went to Sprite’s Site to find Sprite staring at Pugnacious Loyola with a perplexed expression on her face.
“What is the matter?” I asked.
“Do I know everything you know?” she asked
“No you only know what I choose to let you know,” I said.
“But because I’m inside the Internet Dimension I can look up stuff.”
“Yes, but only what I choose to let you research for the next blog entry.”
I assumed we were having a discussion along the lines of:
Jo is to Sprite as Creator is to Creation
Therefore Jo’s knowledge is to Sprite’s knowledge as ???
Or maybe it would be a discussion about free will or about censorship.
I could see all sorts of logical arguments and theological parallels and inconsistencies and was already way out of my depth.
But apparently that was not where this conversation was headed.
“What I don’t get,” said Sprite “is why you want to call him Pugnacious Loyola. I Googled the name and I only found a reference to my Sprite’s Site blog where you said that is what you would call him”

“Apart from that there was stuff about Loyola Marymount Lions and Loyola University. And Wikipedia didn’t help either. Pugnacious seemed to be an adjective describing lots of different people. So I looked up pugnacious on Dictionary,com and it said ‘inclined to quarrel or fight readily; quarrelsome; belligerent; combative’.
And under Loyola it said See Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

Sprite has a new canine friend. This one is neither one of the Black Dogs nor one of the Dabrowski dogs. This is a little fawn pug which apparently has been a good friend and loyal companion since Sprite’s P Party.
“I can always depend on him to be there when I want company or support and he makes funny faces at me and makes me laugh!” said Sprite. “And he is not as demanding as the Dabrowski dogs and he doesn’t make me feel sad or bad like the Black dogs do. I need to find a name for him”

He looks as if he could be an Alien like Frank in Men in Black.
He’s one of God’s Little Weirdos like the pug in the Sheldon web comichttp://www.sheldoncomics.com/There are lots of clever, funny pugs on the web, especially on YouTube.
There’s Odie who barks “I love you”
And Pugsly who barks “Hi Bob”
And lots of clips and Flickr photos of Rosco the pug

The Easter holidays gave me an opportunity to pause and reflect on the central aspects of the Christian faith.
I am Sprite’s creator but it is only a delusion created by the April Fools Day blog entry that it is possible for her to physically visit my dimension and it is definitely not possible for me to physically visit her dimension.
But God, our Creator, both visited us physically in the person of Jesus Christ and by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ made it possible for us to enter and abide in His Presence.
Glory be to God!

“You didn’t really think I’d just leave you stuck there, did you?” said Sprite.
She was back with a troupe of nine monkeys in tow.
“Scrap Lady Sharon Barnes showed me an article she has written about How to Get Unstuck on her Creative Transformations blog

She says
There’s a statue of three monkeys in my office: “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” It can be useful in teaching children to stay safe and in preventing gossip and negativity. On the other hand, it can hold us in Fantasy-Land. When this happens, we also need another set of Monkeys that allows us to connect with reality. This new set of monkeys brings this message:

Monkey Magic
• See what you see.
• Hear what you hear.
• Feel what you feel.
• Know what you know.
• Think your own thoughts.
• Say what you need to say.
• Do what you need to do.
• Be where you are.
• Be who you (really) are.
“You can download a copy of it from a link on her blog.

So I have brought the monkeys to get you unstuck.

And then you can read the whole of the article, and write your next Gifted Resources Newsletter and next term’s program and do all the work that has been piling up. You can finish the washing and ironing.
Then you can write a blog entry about how the monkeys saved you which will fix your Writer’s Block and you can teach me how to do blanket stitch!”

“Are you really stuck?” asked Sprite in an incredulous tone. “I didn’t think you would fall for that April Fools Day trick. It is like the time you believed them when they said ‘gullible’ had been taken out of the dictionary.”

“You need to get out of there; because I need help with the satin stitch on my quilt!”

“Well what do you suggest?” I asked “Obviously I’m suffering from Writer’s Block or I would have written my way out of here long ago”

“Well I guess the classic example would be Winnie the Pooh getting stuck in Rabbit’s doorway” said Sprite. Christopher Robin read thinning stories to one end of Pooh while Rabbit hung his towels out to dry on the other end. But I can’t wait that long! I need help with the satin stitch NOW!”

“See if you can find a tutorial online.” I said.

A few minutes later she was back.
“I found it “she said. “You remember Scrap Lady Sharon who helped me with the quilting.
Well I asked her and she showed me. So now I don’t need you to get unstuck any more and I’m off to get some monkeys!

First there was the sticky note on the computer desktop
Then I found Sprite standing beside a contraption that appeared to be a cross between a gramophone player amplifier and a wormhole holding the sticky note.
“I can get out and get back to my blog world. I have put a Return clicker for me on your home page.
I have put a clicker for you to try to come to my blog world but I think your butt is too big!